Future Founders Conference for Women Globally

[Music] We are all excited to have you here at our very first Future Founders Conference for women. We believe that creating a platform where successful women can share their stories and advice is one way to bring about even more successful women-led businesses. Too many female founders have told me they wasted too much time thinking about when to start a company instead of just getting started. The very fact you're sitting and listening in this conference means you have the ambition to be a founder, and I know you're there right behind this glass screen. So go do it, and we've got your back.

Y Combinator's motto is "Make something people want." What is the most important problem right now, and how are you going to solve it? Most people who are resourced are solving problems that are important to them, and those just aren't the problems that are important to me as a black woman who's a mom in her 40s. When I first went to YSC, it was really overwhelming. We were joking earlier that like I came in a minivan in Birkenstocks and shoes, and it was like all these young dudes who were like, "I froze the brain and I have a whole product," and I was like, "Yeah, we have an idea, and we're trying to figure some stuff out."

There's not just one model of a startup founder. We don't look like the typical team; we're also majority women of color. It has been really inspiring and critical for me to remember that I'm standing on shoulders, that I'm not the first Canadian American black woman to co-found an organization or a company. I saw a lot of different leadership styles at Google; I tried them on, found that they did not fit, and then eventually decided to take the pieces that worked and assemble my own style.

I think too many women forget to build their own brand, and I think this is really important because it gives you that conviction and that voice and sort of this representation that I represent this idea, this product, this competency. You're never going to be ready, and there is never a perfect moment to start a company. But if you have an idea and a great founder, you should start one. The most important quality is determination because if you have any success at all, it's going to be at least a decade of your life.

I don't think anything ever prepares you for founder life. Like, I want to be transparent: I get up at 4 am, I work until my daughter, my 8-year-old, gets up. Man, there's so many really high highs and then really low lows. There have been people who have said crazy things to me over the years. I mean, things like, "Oh, but I think you're too small to be a founder." I eventually learned, like, okay, there's always going to be a hair-on-fire problem.

My dentist found six cracked teeth, all from grinding at night. He said, "This is due to stress." Like, who gets six cracked teeth from stress? So mostly I get negative feedback every day, but I want you to look at me and trust that it's possible to overcome all of it. Starting a startup is an optimistic act. I think it's about the commitment to make the time investment to work until the work is done.

I just had to learn a lot of things on the job, and probably the most helpful thing was just talking to other female founders. "Rose, did you make it through the day?" "I did okay today." "Okay, good job!" Life doesn't stop just because you're stressed out doing the hardest thing you've ever done before. I think of being a mom as a strength, and I think we have to reject that notion that we don't get to be good parents. No, we should be good parents, and we are creating a place where your whole self is welcome at work.

Look, most women I know work harder than anyone else I've met. So to all of you in this group, you're working so hard anyway. Why do you want to rent your time to someone else? Why not do it for your own company? If you're building value for others anyway, why not fricking do it for yourself? We've raised, you know, between us probably 30 million dollars. Very few black women have raised 30 million dollars. Our obligation is not to be stressed; our obligation is to create more folks like this and then to recognize and cherish every day we get to do this.

Something magical happens when we are just working with people we trust and we love because this journey is impossible to do alone. Life is short; take care of the ones you love. Don't be afraid to try new things and never do anything that makes you unhappy. [Music] You